New Chrome Extension Lets You Stalk Facebook Messenger Users

When you install Facebook Messenger, it notifies you that your location will be tracked. Even whenever you start a new conversation, it prompts you of the tracking.

That being said, Facebook tracking your location and then a third party obtaining it from Facebook via an extension has put users at risk. Aran Khanna, a technologist, has developed a Chrome extension, called Marauders Map, that obtains information from Facebook Messenger regarding users’ location and then plots them on a map.

The findings of his extension are weirdly accurate, which makes the app creepy rather than powerful. The extension pinpoints exact location of people. Khanna spent a little extra time so that he could understand the capability of his extension and what type of information he can obtain.

Freakishly, it can tell where a person is, including the location of his/her room in a dorm. The developer discovered that the longitude and latitude coordinates have accurately six decimal places. So now anyone can track (within 3 feet) sender’s position.

However this was not just the end, by continuous observation and by observation I mean stalking, you can even find out sender’s routine schedule. Khanna was able to do this for people he was not even friends with on Facebook or any other social networking site.

Then again, it is based on the information that Facebook is already collecting via Facebook Messenger. Am I the only one who thinks that either this guy is over exaggerating the capabilities of his extension or Facebook users really are at a risk?

Well, if this really creepy extension can do all this, I am not so sure I am up for using the actual Messenger anymore. This app might let a lot of stalkers actually target their prey.